Current Project

Southern Voices Series: Reverend Howard Finster

In 2022/2023, Tanner-Hill Gallery will debut a rare collection of early works on paper by Reverend Howard Finster of Summerville, Georgia. The collection, referred to by the artist as Thought Cards, gives a unique insight into the mind of one of the pioneering artists in the 20th century outsider art field. The body of work documents the early visions of Reverend Finster through handwritten notecards on his evangelical sermons, and includes excerpts of religious texts, drawings of the Reverend’s visions and archival notes on the Baptist preacher's daily life in rural Georgia.

Many of the Thought Cards, dating 1976–1982, coincide with Reverend Finster’s debut at the Phyllis Kind Gallery and lyrically describe visions of worlds ‘beyond the light of the sun’ and were featured alongside the Baptist preacher in a June 1980 article in LIFE Magazine. Previously seventeen of Reverend Finster's Thought Cards were featured in “Revelations” an exhibition at The New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City.